"It's hard to say now. They're just waiting for the swelling to go down," Eric said. Eric, the captain of the Carolina Hurricanees, said he spoke to Marc, a New York Rangers defenseman, on Wednesday morning. "He sounded like he was in OK spirits but we don't know a lot right now. Obviously we're saying prayers and hoping he dodged a bullet as far as being struck in that area. We'll know more with some more time."

Marc was hit by a tipped shot in the third period of the Rangers' 4-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night, and left the game after writhing and bleeding on the ice. It was, in short, horrible. The injury, rightfully, has restarted the debate over whether visors should be mandatory for NHL players. About 70 percent of the league wears eye protection, though not Eric, Marc or Jordan Staal. “I heard the shot, and I heard him,” Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi said, according to the New York Daily News. “He was in a lot of pain.”

Chris Pronger, Manny Malhotra and Ian Laperriere are all among the players whose careers were recently cut short after they were hit in the face.

As for the Rangers, they added defenseman Roman Hamrlik on Wednesday. They'd discussed the move before Staal's injury, according to ESPN New York's Katie Strang. Washington waived Hamrlik, 38, on Tuesday. He had been a healthy scratch in 16 of the Capitals' 20 games this season, and carries a $3.5 million cap hit.